Robert Earle was a veteran State Department official who was
in retirement writing books when he was called back into service by John
Negroponte who was just appointed the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq in the summer of
2004. Negroponte wanted Earle to be his “thinker.” His book Nights in the Pink Motel is divided into
four sections. Three of those focus upon Earle writing strategy papers for
Negroponte and U.S. commander in Iraq General George Casey. The middle section
is when Earle got a blood clot in Baghdad, which forced him leave Iraq, and
head to Germany for medical treatment. Earle writes in an easy and informal
style, and reads like a journal rather than a formal account of events. The
main take away from The Pink Motel was
that the U.S. dug itself into a hole the first year in Iraq, and even when it
tried to come up with a strategy to pull itself out, it fell short.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

This is the second book by Dilip Hiro that I’ve read on Iraq
and I enjoyed both. Iraq In The Eye of
the Storm covers Iraq from the Gulf War right up to before the 2003
invasion. Each chapter has a theme such as life for ordinary Iraqis under
sanctions, the Iraqi opposition, the Kurds, the impact of 9/11, etc. The three
most interesting parts were on the mid-1990s plots against Saddam, the coup
proofing of the regime by Saddam, and the U.N. weapons inspections.

Friday, March 16, 2018

After witnessing a jump in security incidents at the start
of March, things went back to the mean in the second week of the month in Iraq.
Security incidents and casualties were both down, but the Islamic State still
appeared to be rebuilding and getting bolder in its fifth month of
transitioning to an insurgency.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

At the start of March 2018 Prime Minister Haidar Abadi
issued a decree
giving the Hashd al-Shaabi the same pay and benefits as the Iraqi army.
Previously, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki created
the Commission for the Popular Mobilization Forces in June 2014 to give the
Hashd formal backing. Then in February 2016, Abadi passed Executive Order 91
making them an independent group within the Iraqi Security Forces under the
Commander In Chief. These were all meant to bring this paramilitary force into
the Iraqi state.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

On March 3 Iraq’s
parliament passed the 2018 budget, which
was immediately criticized by the Kurds and pro-Iran Hashd groups. The Kurds
had their traditional 17% allocation eliminated, while the Hashd did not get
the same pay and pensions as the Iraqi forces as promised for the last two
years. Now those dissenting voices have been joined by the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and Iraq’s President Fuad Masum.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com